System, Problem Solving, Efficiency – These words are well-engraved within the world of Industrial Engineering. From statistics computation, designing an organization structure, to observing human’s body movement, Industrial Engineering covers them all. Industrial Engineers examine problems through multiple perspectives to determine the best decision. However, one main question still lingers: What is Industrial Engineering exactly?
According to Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (from iise.org):
“Industrial and systems engineering is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.”
To simplify, Industrial Engineers’ objective is optimizing current integrated system using math, physics and social science. This integrated system consists of 5 main entities: Men, Materials, Machines, Methods, and Money. Every entity has its distinct features and contributions to the system; consequently, Industrial Engineers need different tools and methods to tackle problems from each entity. Owing to its broad scope, many approaches are developed and then become one of many sub-specialties in Industrial Engineering.
Let me give you an example. Imagine you own a small catering services company and want to improve your business. Then, you call a consultant company full of Industrial Engineers, each with different area of expertise. You could expect these process and activities from them:
1. Human Factor and Safety
Objective: Analyze the kitchen and human interactions from psychological and physiological perspective to reduce human error and improve productivity.
2. Operations Management Objective
Inspect your operations process from planning your orders, scheduling the cooking time, how to allocate your ingredients, when to conduct machine maintenance with minimum productivity loss and how would you deliver your product efficiently.
3. Supply Chain Engineering Objective
Evaluate how you buy your ingredients from suppliers, which suppliers should you pick to get the most valuable ingredients, forecasting demands and prices to decide when to buy your supplies.
4. Quality Control Objective
Investigate why some of your products have inconsistent ingredients quality and the reasons why you produced that much of burned food.
5. Finance Engineering Objective
Study your current balance sheet and the financial situations to determine your best business strategy to improve revenues.
Based on the example above, it is apparent that every approach leads back to refining the 5 main entities (Men (1), Materials (2 and 3), Machines (2 and 4), Methods (2, 3, and 4), and Money (5)). Moreover, every individual has to be in the same wavelength despite their expertise because every change and adjustments they make from each area affect the whole system. Each objective is different with one another yet still aims for the same goal: make the system better.
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